


Time To Howl

by Eternal Scribe (Shadowcat)



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-24
Updated: 2012-09-24
Packaged: 2017-11-14 23:31:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,056
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/520646
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadowcat/pseuds/Eternal%20Scribe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Fight to live and live to fight, battle the dark, the dead of night."</p>
<p>Faith decides Buffy needs to embrace the darkness</p>
            </blockquote>





	Time To Howl

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the 2008 FemmeFic Challenge

"It felt good, didn't it, girlfriend?" The dark-haired young woman asked her blond companion. "It was really exhilarating."

The blond gave her a look. "Which part? The sewer system tour, the part where I was almost drowned or the part where six vampires turned into a lot more than that?"

"Aww, you're thinking too much again, B," she grinned as she shook out her arms from the aches of the battle they had just won.

"It tends to keep me alive, Faith."

"Keeps your body alive, but what about your spirit and your soul, girlfriend? You have to live a little to really stay alive."

"Did you miss the part where we almost died down there, Faith? Because that's a pretty vivid memory for me. You didn't think. You jumped down a manhole into the sewers and could have gotten yourself killed."

"I wasn't alone. You followed me." The grin that Faith gave her was wicked.

"I couldn't let you go down there alone."

"Don't give me that. You followed me down there because for once in your life you decided to just go with your instincts and jump into the fire."

"You needed the back up," Buffy argued. However, the argument wasn't very forceful.

"And who decided to stay down there to keep fighting even when I was the one that said we needed to get out of there?"

"We needed that amulet."

"And you were enjoying yourself."

"No..." Faith gave her a look. "Okay, maybe I was enjoying it just a little bit."

Faith smirked. "That's what I'm talking about, B. Every once in awhile, you need to give into that internal darkness that you spend so much time running from."

"I don't have internal darkness."

"Of course you do. You're a Slayer, Buffy. Being a Slayer comes with some darkness inherent in who you are. We have one foot in darkness and one foot... somewhere else."

"Don't you mean one foot in the light?"

"Do I look like I think we spend a whole lot of time in the light, B? We go out after dark where no one else is brave enough to walk. We spend our time in cemeteries and sewers ---"

"--- not by wise choice."

"--- and most of our lives are spent out patrolling at night while everyone else is tucked safely in their beds. We're not part of the light, Buffy. What's the point in trying to fool ourselves?"

"There's more to us than just the job, Faith. We're still people. We're the good guys."

"We're better than the good guys. We have power and everyone wants what we have." She grinned. "Buff, we fight to live, and we live to fight, you know. It's who we are. Both of us."

"There is more to us than that," she repeated.

"Yeah, there's the partying after we're victorious." She swirled her hips and whooped. "We kicked ass, B. We're badder than the darkness."

She couldn't deny the draw of everything Faith was saying to her, but Buffy frowned anyway as she looked at the item in her hand. "We should get back with this amulet."

"Checking in with the new Watcher," Faith scoffed. "Screw that. We don't need him. What kind of a name is Wesley Wyndham Pryce, any way?" She raised an eyebrow at Buffy. "The man is the dorkiest dork that I have ever seen -- and I've seen a lot of them."

Buffy looked torn, but then she sighed. "Come on, we have to at least let Giles know about the sudden army that seems to have appeared where a mostly dead cult is supposed to be."

Faith shook her head. "You go. I have some better ideas about how to spend my night."

Buffy hesitated. She didn't want to leave Faith out here alone right now, but she also realized that Giles really needed to be told about everything that had happened tonight. "Yeah, okay. Catch you tomorrow, Faith."

Faith watched Buffy walk away and then shook her head. The careful and precise Blondie Slayer could be so much fun -- and a lot cooler -- if she would just bust loose and learn to have a good time every once and a while.

That would probably require getting her to spend some more time away from that gang of hers so she could freely embrace her inner Slayer Bitch. Buffy treated being a Slayer like it was a burden and something to think of as a job or a responsibility. She had yet to realize the inherent coolness of it. They were powerful and they could do anything that they wanted because of it. That gang of hers was holding her back and Faith wasn't a part of that gang of hangers-on.

She didn't _want_ to be one of them. She didn't need them. She was pretty damn cool with who she was. Who she was was a damn hot chick with super powers. She could do anything that she wanted to do and nobody could stop her. The fact is, Buffy could be like that, too. She wanted to see the other Slayer be like that and embrace everything thing that she was -- everything a Slayer could entail.

"You and me against the world, Babe," Faith murmured as she made her way through town, looking for a bar that was still open. She needed a drink and a nice roll to deal with the adrenaline that was still coursing through her after the battle with the Eliminati.

Later, after she kicked the guy out of her room, she flopped down on the bed. Everything about the battle had been cool and had shown both Slayers that Buffy did indeed have the same darkness inside her that Faith, herself, had. The only thing she hadn't liked about the battle was being powerless to get to her friend when she was being drowned down there.

"Not gonna happen again," Faith said as she ran a hand through her hair. She was going to get Buffy away from those goody-goodies and show her what it meant to be a Slayer. She was going to help Buffy shed that too confining skin and teach her to howl. Her counterpart didn't seem to have any idea how to have fun with who they were.

That was okay. She had Faith to teach her.


End file.
